Last Sunday, after a wonderful weekend with friends, we strapped ourselves into the Mazda3 Time Machine and eased on down a not-so-winding mountain road, initially grooving to UK soul singer Omar’s new EP, which balances the old with the new, before shifting to retro-flavored R&B—or trying to, at any rate. The night before, courtesy of siblings Alexa and Sirius, we enjoyed a sumptuous mix of retro soul that included Say She She, Latasha Lee, and Thee Sacred Souls; I assumed Apple Music could replicate the magic. “Hey Siri,” I said, “play retro soul.”
“I’ll Be Missing You” by Puff Daddy and Faith Evans, released in 1997, began to play. Now, as any music aficionado can attest, retro soul/R&B doesn’t sample the Police. Though the songs conjure the classic R&B of the 1960s and ‘70s, they’re of later eras; the sub-genre took form in the late ‘90s and gained mainstream appeal not long thereafter thanks to Amy Winehouse, Sharon Jones & the Dapkings, Raphael Saadiq, and others. Durand Jones & the Indications, Jalen Ngonda, MT Jones, and Nia Wyn are but a few of the more recent retro-flavored acts I’ve spotlighted on this blog; Melbourne-based Ella Thompson is another. So when Apple Music rebuffed my second request for “retro soul” with another non-retro song, I asked her to play “Ella Thompson and similar artists.”
It quickly became apparent that this on-the-fly Apple Music playlist was not keyed in on the retro aspect of Ella Thompson’s sound, but her locale. One Aussie artist followed the next, in other words, with some selections funky and others post-punk. I’ll eschew a track-by-track recap just so I can get to this: the jazz-imbued soul of Don Glori’s “Power,” the only song other than Ella’s I was familiar with, reverberated from the speakers as if a refugee from the late 1970s or early ‘80s. It’s not retro soul, mind you. I’d call it a throwback to the silky sounds of smooth jazz, albeit with more funk. Soft-hued harmonies flow, a saxophone wails, and a rhythmic groove snaps into place. To paraphrase an intro from noted Cincinnati deejay Venus Flytrap, it sounds like the soft stillness of night evolving into the gentle caresses of sweet harmony—or something like that.
Anyway, thanks to a preview copy, I’ve been grooving to Glori’s forthcoming Paper Can’t Wrap Fire album for near a month. At times, it reminds me of Van Morrison’s ethereal ‘80s albums, while several tracks conjure the more recent stylings of Jimetta Rose & the Voices of Creation. There’s plenty of funky jazz, too. The tracks unreel like mini-suites that showcase an array of styles, but it’s more than simple sonic play. There’s a message in the metamorphoses. As Glori explains in the press release, “A lot of [the songs] are in some way about truth-seeking, observations and the masks you put on to deal with life.” It’s a perfect accompaniment for late nights.
Joining him on the musical journey are Tim Cox, Al Kennedy, Joel Trigg, Robyn Cummins and Lachlan Thompson from his touring band, vocalists ML Hall, Ruby Dargaville, Isadora Lauritz, and Bianca Kyriacou, plus trumpeter Audrey Powne, saxophonist Joshua Moshe, and Brazilian multi-instrumentalist Alcides Neto. That the nine tracks were recorded over two days at Rolling Stock Studios in Collingwood, Naarm (Melbourne), speaks to their talent and Glori’s ear for arrangements.
Don Glori, by the way, is an anagram of Melbourne/Naarm multi-instrumentalist Gordon Li, now apparently based in London, whose past outings were rooted in purer jazz. He produced and arranged the songs, writing eight and co-writing the ninth, “Janet,” with Hall.
The Old Grey Cat 